'Boardwalk Figurine of
George Washington
Crossing the Delaware'.
Atlantic City, New Jersey,
2003.
{Governmentalism is not an ideology. It is a method of taking control of money, people, resources, and existing forms of government.}
Were you watching NBC Monday evening, March 28, 2011? Obama made change, in a break with tradition, by delivering his speech on the Libyan military action, not in the usual personal 'My Fellow Americans' style from the Oval Office of the White House, but from a podium in the Military Defense University Auditorium. Obama's oratory, was a long, noble, but rather vague explanation of the 136 Tomahawk missile US-led military action against Libya's Colonel Moammar Khaddafy. Obama's most immediate goal appeared to be the transfer of leadership to European and Arab 'partners' in the action.
What followed on the NBC channel was stunningly cognitively dissonant, even macabre. The usual Oval Office announcements of US war activities are sobering, given by somber US Presidents who appear somewhat discomfited by such involvement. The speech ends, the screen fades to black. Then the television journalists begin the analysis of the speech, what was meant, what this action may mean for the US.
Obama's Libyan address was a real change. Suddenly, following the speech, cameras pan an auditorium filled with men in 'black tie' tuxedos and women in party dresses. Then the lights came up, there was a choir of dozens, well-known entertainers performing music and announcing the presence of 4 former presidents and their wives. Former Presidents George HW Bush with wife Barbara and son George W. Bush with wife Laura were present. Husband of current Obama Administration US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, William J. Clinton, President for two administrations between the 1st and 2nd Bush Administrations, recognized the other former presidents and spoke briefly of US 'public service'. The viewers saw the benefits. To their credit, former President Jimmy Carter and wife Lillian appeared somewhat less comfortable than the others.
Despite the noble words of Barack H. Obama, the spirit of the United States of America was somehow sullied by the light rock concert which followed Obama's Libyan
address. There seemed to be a profound display of insensitivity in going to a rock concert after announcing a foreign war, violent air strikes to stop violence. The event may have been very unsettling to very many US citizens.
US citizens usually celebrate the end of war. War saddens many Americans, even if some hope to retain their military paychecks by going to war.
Obama's Declaration/Concert certainly confirms the foreign view, that the US often is perceived as, insensitive, arrogant, and invasive.
Email mkrause381@gmail.com or mkrause54@yahoo.com to comment or request a copy of this or other blogs posted by mary for monthlynotesstaff on http://monthlynotes21.blogspot.com (http://monthlynotes.blogspot.com through '21'). See http://monthlynotes18.blogspot.com and '19' for bloglists of titles and URLs.
Graphic: An Original Photographic of 'Boardwalk Figurine of George Washington Crossing the Delaware', Atlantic City, New Jersey, 2003, copyright, mkrause381@gmail.com or mkrause54@yahoo.com.
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